Case Study ( 8th grade)
Student: Gary Level: Middle School 8th grade Problem: Behavioral Gary was an eighth grade student attending a middle school that serves grades six through eight. With a diagnosis of Emotional/Behavior Disorder (EBD), Gary spent three class periods per day in IEP classes designed to deliver modified content area curriculum to students with disabilities. Gary attended IEP classes for English, social studies, and science. In addition, he spent one class period per day in a resource setting that essentially functioned as a tutorial class for help with homework. He was included in general education classes for advisory, pre-algebra, art, physical education, and shop. His teachers described Gary as explosive, noncompliant, and unconcerned about his assignments. His behaviors included off-task behaviors, talking to other students during work periods, not completing work, refusal to comply with directions, negative verbal exchanges, and leaving the classroom without permission. The teachers described incidents of Gary’s negative behaviors escalating quickly when he was approached for being off-task. His response would tend to follow a chain of making negative comments, arguing, and walking out of class. SCREENING: In order to identify such students, there are usually diagnostic tests or psychological tests that help determine what some students have and will in turn help us teachers identify what their needs are and how to best approach it. If you click or copy this link it can give you an idea on how the process works. http://www.solutionsforchildproblems.com/psychological-tests.html Tier 1: Gary will be provided with differentiated learning and should target more or less 80% of all students. Because Gary has a special case, it is more often than not probable that tier 1 will address the needs of Gary. For example, in Physical education, The teacher will give instructions to the whole class, but alter the fitness drill depending on the students. Everyone will accomplish the task but in different levels of difficulty or pace. Tier 2: Gary will continue to take part in his classes, but in tier two he will be assisted and be given more attention than tier 1. Usually the students who fall under the 15 percent that cannot keep up with the 80 percent will fall under this section. It has been noticed that in this group certain skills for learning are developed rather than focusing on the core subject matter. It is important to take note that although they are not focusing on the core subjects, tier 2 helps supplement the students by trying to enhance/practice certain skills for them to understand the subject matter more effectively. In the description above pertaining to Gary’s case, it was mentioned how “Gary spent three class periods per day in IEP classes designed to deliver modified content area curriculum to students with disabilities”. Another example would be, Gary will still participate in the 90 minute instruction for English but in addition to that he will be part of another class per day of getting more help with Reading. This allows a more focused group without the distractions from his other classmates. Tier 3: If necessary, tier 3 comes into play, the student will be scheduled to meet with a skilled and qualified school counselor that can give Gary individualized support. This time being closely in contact with the child’s parents to have a better home and school collaboration. This tier will require regular individualized sessions in a span of a given number of weeks to meet the end goal of Gary being more calm, focused and on task. Data Collection method: The teacher chooses a method that will offer helpful information about the student’s problem. An example of a method would be behavior-frequency counts and direct behavior report cards. When collecting data with regards to behavior, the instructor or teacher should also keep in mind how frequent he or she will gather such date, once a week, once a month or depending on the severity of the problem. For example, the frequency of how often the student stays on task or how often he or she doesn’t. Students who fall under “Tier 2 interventions should be monitored 1-2 times per month, while students on Tier 3 (intensive problem-solving protocol) interventions should be monitored at least weekly” (Burns & Gibbons, 2008). SOURCES: http://paraelink.org/pdf/bmk3k4Activity_2f.pdf http://www.interventioncentral.org/response_to_intervention_structuring_teacher_data_collection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkK1bT8ls0M&feature=youtu.be BY JEFFREY KIRK LONG